Cool core disturbed: Observational evidence for coexistence of sub-sonic sloshing gas and stripped shock-heated gas around the core of RX J1347.5-1145

RXJ1347.5-1145 (z = 0.451) is one of the most luminous X-ray galaxy clusters, which hosts a prominent cool core and exhibits a signature of a major merger. We present the first direct observational evidence for sub-sonic nature of sloshing motion of the cool core. We find that a residual X-ray image from the Chandra X-ray Observatory after removing the global emission shows a clear dipolar pattern characteristic of gas sloshing, whereas we find no significant residual in the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect (SZE) image from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). We estimate the equation of state of perturbations in the gas from the X-ray and SZE residual images. The inferred velocity is 420 +310 -420 km s-1, which is much lower than the adiabatic sound speed of the intracluster medium in the core. We thus conclude that the perturbation is nearly isobaric, and gas sloshing motion is consistent with being in pressure equilibrium. Next, we report evidence for gas stripping of an infalling subcluster, which likely shock-heats gas to high temperature well in excess of 20 keV. Using mass distribution inferred from strong lensing images of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), we find that the mass peak is located away from the peak position of stripped gas with statistical significance of > 5{\sigma}. Unlike for the gas sloshing, the velocity inferred from the equation of state of the excess hot gas is comparable to the adiabatic sound speed expected for the 20 keV intracluster medium. All of the results support that the southeast substructure is created by a merger. On the other hand, the positional offset between the mass and the gas limits the self-interaction cross section of dark matter to be less than 3.7 h-1 cm2 g-1 (95% CL).Comment: 18 pages, 10 figures, accepted for publication in Ap

Submillimeter detection of the Sunyaev -- Zel'dovich effect toward the most luminous X-ray cluster at z=0.45

We report on the detection of the Sunyaev -- Zel'dovich (SZ) signals toward the most luminous X-ray cluster RXJ1347-1145 at Nobeyama Radio Observatory (21 and 43 GHz) and at James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (350 GHz). In particular the latter is the first successful detection of the SZ temperature increment in the submillimeter band which resolved the profile of a cluster of galaxies. Both the observed spectral dependence and the radial profile of the SZ signals are fully consistent with those expected from the X-ray observation of the cluster. The combined analysis of 21GHz and 350GHz data reproduces the temperature and core-radius of the cluster determined with the ROSAT and ASCA satellites when we adopt the slope of the density profile from the X-ray observations. Therefore our present data provide the strongest and most convincing case for the detection of the submillimeter SZ signal from the cluster, as well as in the Rayleigh -- Jeans regime. We also discuss briefly the cosmological implications of the present results.Comment: 11 pages, The Astrophysical Journal (Letters), in pres

Oligomerization of Hepatitis C Virus Core Protein is Crucial for Interaction with the Cytoplasmic Domain of E1 Envelope Protein

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) contains two membrane-associated envelope glycoproteins, E1 and E2, which assemble as a heterodimer in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). In this study, predictive algorithms and genetic analyses of deletion mutants and glycosylation site variants of the E1 glycoprotein were used to suggest that the glycoprotein can adopt two topologies in the ER membrane: the conventional type I membrane topology and a polytopic topology in which the protein spans the ER membrane twice with an intervening cytoplasmic loop (amino acid residues 288 to 360). We also demonstrate that the E1 glycoprotein is able to associate with the HCV core protein, but only upon oligomerization of the core protein in the presence of tRNA to form capsid-like structures. Yeast two-hybrid and immunoprecipitation analyses reveal that oligomerization of the core protein is promoted by amino acid residues 72 to 91 in the core. Furthermore, the association between the E1 glycoprotein and the assembled core can be recapitulated using a fusion protein containing the putative cytoplasmic loop of the E1 glycoprotein. This fusion protein is also able to compete with the intact E1 glycoprotein for binding to the core. Mutagenesis of the cytoplasmic loop of E1 was used to define a region of four amino acids (residues 312 to 315) that is important for interaction with the assembled HCV core. Taken together, our studies suggest that interaction between the self-oligomerized HCV core and the E1 glycoprotein is mediated through the cytoplasmic loop present in a polytopic form of the E1 glycoprotein

Vascular Patterns of Villous Tumors of the Colorectum

In order to more fully understand the morphological characteristics of villous tumors of the colorectum, the vascular patterns of six colorectal resection specimens were microangiographically studied. Grossly, villous adenomas were of two main types: pedunculated polyps and carpet-like lesions. Pedunculated villous adenomas had many large stalk vessels in a broad short pedicle, representing a large blood supply to the tumor. The carpet-like lesions were composed of continuous clusters of polyps with stalk vessels and the flat elevated lesions among polyps and at the periphery showed similar vascular patterns to the mucosa of normal colon. In lesions with cancer invasive to the proper muscle layer, scattered ulcerations due to the destruction of polyps were also observed, corresponding to at least a Dukes B lesion. The above findings could represent very important additional information for endoscopic treatment or local excision for the prevention of hemorrhagic complicatios or incomplete removal of tumor

Reservoir purification by using micro-bubble aerator

Proceedings of the Seventh International Conference on Hydroscience and Engineering, Philadelphia, PA, September 2006. http://hdl.handle.net/1860/732A new hypolimnetic aeration system was devised and its performance of water purification was examined in in-situ experiments. The system feeds fine micro-bubbles to the anoxic hypolimnion. Two types of aeration were conducted; the first one was aeration with natural air and the second one was oxygen aeration. It was confirmed in both of the experiments that the hypolimnion was kept aerobic even during midsummer, while it used to be kept completely anoxic in the absence of aeration. Since the oxygen micro-bubbles show higher solubility than the air micro-bubbles, dissolved oxygen in the hypolimnion was greatly recovered and even over-saturated in the case of oxygen aeration. In both cases, the micro-bubble aeration scarcely agitated the water, thus causing the thermal stratification to be well-preserved without generating predominant vertical mixing. Although the reservoir had suffered from serious oxygen depletion and contamination in the hypolimnion before the aeration, concentrations of nutrients, manganese and iron significantly decreased after starting the hypolimnetic aeration. The two reservoirs are now almost free from hypolimnetic contamination

Crucial Role of FABP3 in αSyn-Induced Reduction of Septal GABAergic Neurons and Cognitive Decline in Mice

International audienceIn synucleinopathies, while motor symptoms are thought to be attributed to the accumulationof misfolded a-synuclein (aSyn) in nigral dopaminergic neurons, it remains to be elucidatedhow cognitive decline arises. Here, we investigated the effects of distinct aSyn strains on cognitionand the related neuropathology in the medial septum/diagonal band (MS/DB), a key region forcognitive processing. Bilateral injection of aSyn fibrils into the dorsal striatum potently impairedcognition in mice. The cognitive decline was accompanied by accumulation of phosphorylated aSynat Ser129 and reduction of gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA)-ergic but not cholinergic neurons inthe MS/DB. Since we have demonstrated that fatty acid-binding protein 3 (FABP3) is critical for aSynneurotoxicity in nigral dopaminergic neurons, we investigated whether FABP3 also participates inaSyn pathology in the MS/DB and cognitive decline. FABP3 was highly expressed in GABAergic butrarely in cholinergic neurons in the MS/DB. Notably, Fabp3 deletion antagonized the accumulationof phosphorylated aSyn, decrease in GABAergic neurons, and cognitive impairment caused byaSyn fibrils. Overall, the present study indicates that FABP3 mediates aSyn neurotoxicity in septalGABAergic neurons and the resultant cognitive impairment, and that FABP3 in this subpopulationcould be a therapeutic target for dementia in synucleinopathies

Suppression of α-synuclein propagation after intrastriatal injection in FABP3 null mice

International audienceAccumulation and aggregation of α-synuclein (αSyn) triggers neuronal loss in thesubstantia nigra pars compacta (SNpc) which in turn causes motor symptoms inParkinson’s disease. We previously demonstrated that fatty acid-binding protein 3(FABP3), an intracellular fatty acid carrier protein, enhances αSyn neurotoxicity in theSNpc and motor impairments after intranigral injection of αSyn fibrils. However,temporal spreading profile of αSyn fibrils and those toxicity remains unclear. In thepresentstudy, we investigated the temporal profile of αSyn fibrils and its toxicity inducingintracellular fibril formation. Monomeric and fibrillar aSyn assemblies were labelled withATTO550 to distinguish exogenous from endogenous species and injected into bilateralstriatum in Fabp3$^{+/+}$ (wild type) and Fabp3$^{-/-}$ mice. Accumulation of both monomeric andfibrillar exogenous αSyn in the SNpc was drastically decreased in Fabp3$^{-/-}$ micecompared to Fabp3$^{+/+}$ counterparts. Fabp3 deletion also prevented exogenous αSynfibrils-induced seeding of endogenous αSyn into aggregation containing phosphorylatedand filament forms in the SNpc. Consistent with these results, loss of dopaminergicneurons and the following impaired motor behaviours were attenuated in Fabp3$^{-/-}$ mice.These results highlight crucial role of FABP3 in pathogenic αSyn accumulation and itsseeding ability. Taken together, FABP3 could be a potential therapeutic target againstαSyn propagation in synucleinopathies